Presentation files sizes can be large. They can be massive. Often the bloated file size is from videos that are too large (aka Massive Videos) for what is needed. Because bigger is not always better. Microsoft PowerPoint makes it easy to add videos to presentation slides. Videos are embedded in the .pptx file by default. Which means if a 100 MB video is added to a slide, the file size goes up 100 MB. And massive presentation files with massive video files embedded sometimes can ruin a presentation (aka – PowerPoint, or even the computer, crash!).

The TLC Creative team is blessed/spoiled/has an unfair advantage – use the phrase that feels right. But our team, including accounting and project coordinator roles work on computers with 32-64 MB of memory and Nvidia 30X or 40X series graphic cards. In addition, the TLC Creative computers have multiple video CODECs installed and continuously updated. Presentations and videos of all sizes work when we play them. But we know that not everyone has robust content creation spec’d computers – but we also know that videos in presentations can be optimized to allow them to run on lower powered computers, but often are not.

Designers should know how identify and optimize embedded videos to ensure smooth play by everyone. Note: the focus of this blog post is embedded video. Linked and online video have the advantage of not increasing the file size, but have other inherent playback issues not covered here.

AUDIT
Let’s start with knowing there are videos in a presentation. My favorite tool for this is Neuxpower’s Slidewise add-in (https://neuxpower.com/slidewise-powerpoint-add-in). Part of Slidewise’s presentation audit is a section that highlights if there are videos in the slide deck, what the file size of each is, and exactly what slides the videos are on.

• Slidewise is a 3rd party add-in that is purchased separately (and in my opinion, worth the expense!)
• The audit for the demo slide deck reports there is 1 audio file and 3 video files embedded in the presentation.
• The OTHER section of the slide deck audit will show linked videos.
• Note: when media is embedded in a presentation, the original file name is replaced by PowerPoint with a generic name, “media#”.

OPTIMIZE
Microsoft PowerPoint has all the tools needed to optimize videos (and audio) built directly into PowerPoint (at least on the desktop PowerPoint app) and avoid the need to use an external video editing app or website. Go to (1) FILE > (2) INFO

If there is a video not in the .MP4 file format, or an audio file not in the .MP3 file format, the (3) OPTIMIZE COMPATABILITY option is available. Click this to transcode all embedded videos to an industry standard .MP4 file format. You can also do this to transcode audio files to industry standard .MP3 files.

Note: The .MP4 file format for videos is the recommended video format as there are video playback engines universally on Windows OS, Mac OS, web browsers, mobile devices, tablet. While other video file formats have benefits, the high quality and ability to natively play on virtually every device make .MP4 the current best option.
The (4) COMPRESS MEDIA option is available any time embedded media is in a slide deck. The good news is, running the compress media function first reviews the media files and only optimizes if compression is possible. In other words, always run this process, it will only help and never hurt your files. Just remember to select the high res setting!

Notes about video file formats and CODECS:

• .MP4 is not the ultimate file format for quality. But it is the best for file size to quality with guaranteed playback. As example, Apple ProRes has incredible quality, but it also has incredibly large file sizes. They also cannot be played on many Windows OS devices or web browsers.
• CODECs are the technical aspect of the video inside the file format. As example, not all .MP4 videos are the same. The CODEC applied to the video, inside the .MP4 may not be an industry standard, which at this time is H.264 with LAME audio. We at TLC Creative really (really) like the newer H.265 video CODEC and use it on many projects. But PowerPoint is not one of them (yet).
• TIP: Even if the video added to a slide deck is a .MP4, run PowerPoint’s OPTIMIZE and COMPRESS tools. If the video is formatted with a non-standard CODEC, the embedded video will be converted to the safest, industry standard file format and CODEC, ensuring it will play on almost any device the presentation is run from.

FINAL NOTE
Bottom line, don’t be intimidated by adding videos to a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. Being aware of the need to optimize videos will eliminate potential issues before you begin. Focus on creating PowerPoint presentations that are both attention grabbing and reliable. This will ensure a smooth experience for both the presenter and the audience.

– Troy and the TLC Creative design team

Presentation files sizes can be large. They can be massive. But not all large files need images that are overly large. Often the bloated PowerPoint file size is from images that are too large (aka Massive Images) for what is needed. Because bigger is not always better.

As example. If the presentation is being shown on a 1920×1080 pixel (“HD”) screen, it does not need 8000 pixel wide images. Technically PowerPoint uses 96 DPI, most everything is based on 72 DPI, and the TLC standard is to work at 150 DPI. But inserting “print resolution” 300 or 600 DPI images is not going to project better than an optimized image, it just make the file size larger than it needs to be.

Large PowerPoint file size takes longer to open, longer to save, and depending on the computer specs, those large images can affect PowerPoint’s performance, especially with animations and slide transitions. Motion glitches, animation lag, slide advance lag, all the way to PowerPoint freezing or crashing are real concerns from large file size created by massive images.

SOLUTIONS

At TLC Creative, we are not fond of Microsoft PowerPoint’s native image compression tool. In general we find it does less than our preferred third-party solution (see below), overly compresses images to the point of visual quality loss, and is a clunky interface.

Neupower’s NXPowerlite add-in is our go-to solution for optimizing images in a presentation. TIP: setup customized compression preset profiles for tailored results.

There are many options and hacks for updating a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation with optimized images. The key is to have optimized presentations with images optimized for the intended use. Our presentation projects vary and our optimization (eg. NXPowerlite profile) varies to match. The above example is an HD, 1920×1080, presentation, which is probably the most common presentation need. But another presentation project was a presentation that spanned 3 LED walls and was 8448×1024 px for the PowerPoint. Different optimize needs for each project, but we can assure that each presentation included only optimized images to avoid massive presentation files.

Troy @ TLC

Hidden slides are very common in Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. However, PowerPoint’s built in UI doesn’t do a great job at making the hidden slides apparent. The slide sorter view has a small slash through the slide number, and the slide is subtly greyed out which can be easy to miss when scanning through a large number of slides. Identifying hidden slides becomes a “Where’s Waldo” search!

[image generated through Midjourney]

Microsoft PowerPoint’s latest interface is stylish, but the small, subtle, almost imperceptible slash indicating the slide is hidden is not obvious when reviewing slides.

Here is the sample slide deck for this post:

At TLC we add a .png “hidden” image to the help the hidden slides standout (download the Hidden ping at this September 2006 blog post).

Same thing when printing slides. In a slide sorter/light table layout, there is NO indication of a slide being hidden.

This can cause problems when presenters review the presentation. Do they know the slides are hidden and not part of the slide show? This scenario is a regular occurrence during onsite meetings, and we hear from the stage – during the meeting – “Well, some of my slides are missing”. Because the presenter reviewed a printout, or PDF, of the slides and had no way to know some of the slides are hidden and not part of the slide show.

Again, the TLC solution is adding a hidden overlay image, which makes it easy to identify slides that are NOT part of the slideshow.

Hidden slides are an amazing option. But the interface is not designed to aid presenters. When a hidden slide is noted in a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, confirm with the presenter they know it is hidden (and not part of the slideshow)!

Slide page numbers are a nice feature to utilize in Microsoft PowerPoint for the speaker to keep track of the presentation. But are the page numbers in your presentation setup and used as designed?

Page numbers are an easy automated element in PowerPoint when setup correct.

While page numbers may display on slides, that does not equate to setup correct. And not being setup correct is something the TLC Creative presentation design team spends literally hours fixing (time that does not need to be added to the project invoice if setup and used correct) if not set up properly.

Before talking about setup and use issues, let me address this common question – should page numbers be used at all?

The conversation is generally about how page numbers take up unnecessary space, they don’t benefit the audience, and often are not formatted consistent throughout a presentation. Ultimately, it is up to the presenter. But if the presentation template is preset for page numbers, which also enables them to be turned on/off in 3 clicks, then TLC Creative finds the value in page numbers. We like to keep page numbers active on all slides during the design and rehearsal phases for easy reference to what slide has revision requests. Then we turn them off for the actual presentation.

 Page Number Problems
Problem 1: Manually adding a text box with the page number to a slide. This is short term thinking. What if the slide count changes? What if the real slide numbers are turned on and now the slide has two different slide number text boxes on the slide?

Problem 2: Slide numbers are added as hard-coded text boxes “<#>” that are not linked to the slide number footer. While this works, it is also short term planning. What happens when slides move into another presentation and have hard-coded text boxes?

Problem 3: Slide number text is in different position and text formatting across slides. This goes back to properly setting up the master slide within Microsoft PowerPoint. Using the preset slide number text placeholder position and formatting is the best way to maintain consistency throughout the presentation. Then resetting the slide will update text boxes to be consistent (Microsoft – why is there not an option to just reset the footer placeholders formatting and not the full slide!).

The key is being able to use Microsoft PowerPoint’s HEADER AND FOOTER feature that instantly can add, or remove, slide numbers from a selection of slides or the entire slide deck in 3 clicks. Remember, a text box will display the page number; however if that text box is not linked to the master slide footer placeholder for text boxes it is more of a problem than help, because only slide number footer text placeholders are programmed to function with the header/footer dialog options.

How Does It Work?

The good news is, it just works. There are no options or settings. Just go to INSERT > HEADER & FOOTER (or SLIDE NUMBER) > on the HEADER AND FOOTER dialog > check or uncheck the “Slide Number” box > click “Apply” to change just the selected slides, or “Apply to All” to change all slides in the presentation*. Done!

TIP *: “Apply to All” only applies to all slides that use that Master Slide. If the presentation has multiple master slides (see Issue #1 in this series on multiple masters) slide number formatting and just turning on/off requires more effort.

TIP: Turn off slide numbers on all slides, using the HEADER AND FOOTER Apply to All. Then review slides to identify which still show a slide number. It is either a manual text box on the slide, a slide number footer that has lost its link to the placeholder (Microsoft, why is not possible to reconnect slide text boxes to master placeholders!), a master slide that has multiple slide number text boxes, or the another master slide that needs to have page numbers turned off (and then on when review complete).

Page numbers can become a burden in slide formatting, or if setup correct, that can become a valuable asset (or at least not a frustration!).